New Life
by JustJeanette
Summary: Oneshot Complete: My take on Afterlife. What really happened when Spike got back home to find Dawn and Buffy. Please Read and Review.


Dedicated to: jet girl  
  
Rating: G  
  
Spoilers: Afterlife  
  
Disclaimer: I'm just playing with them, Jos, ME and others own them.  
  
New Life:  
  
"Dawn, Dawn." Spike's voice echoed around the house, fear adding a sharp tang  
  
to his tone's normal bite. "Are you there?"  
  
He looked up angrily as heard her yell from what used to be her mum's room.  
  
"I'm here."  
  
"Thank God, you scared me half to death or more to death. You. I could kill  
  
you!" He ground out angrily, all the while wondering what was wrong; his demon  
  
was kicking up a right fuss. Bad enough Dawn disappearing, but there was a new  
  
scent in the air, real danger.  
  
"Spike," Dawn spoke softly, half afraid to scare her companion.  
  
"I mean it! I could rip your head off one handed and drink from your brain  
  
stem."  
  
"Look." Dawn said as she stepped aside to reveal Buffy standing behind her.  
  
Buffy stopped and looked down at the blonde Vampire, his body visibly shook from  
  
the residual fear that he'd lost Dawn as well. How a Vampire, a soulless  
  
Vampire could care so much was beyond her, it was beyond those who had cradled  
  
her in safety and peace. They, as much as those who had brought her back, felt  
  
a loss that could be borne; they had allowed the calling as much for the Vampire  
  
as for the Slayer. "Our peace is fleeting, your peace is not this; you must  
  
find your own peace." They communicated cryptically.  
  
"Yeah, I've seen the bloody bot before." He remarked sarcastically, hardly  
  
glancing at that atrocity called the bot. "I didn't think she'd patch up so  
  
good." He remarked, remembering the dismembered mess they'd come across earlier  
  
in the evening.  
  
Then it hit him; a heart beat, faint but steady. That was all he was able to  
  
process before his brain shut down. He couldn't be seeing what he thought he  
  
was seeing; his nightmares had become daymares it seemed; but the heart beat  
  
kept going, and his demon began to scream.  
  
"She's kind of, umm. She's been through a lot, what with the death, but I think  
  
she's ok." Dawn commented. "Spike, are you OK?"  
  
"I am." He replied softly, not quite the truth.  
  
"What did you do?" He asked, his eyes not leaving Buffy, his ears straining to  
  
hear that wonderful sound emanating from her breast, thump ? thump ? thump?  
  
"Me? Nothing."  
  
"You're hurt." He finally addressed Buffy who'd stood stock still under his  
  
gaze, the only movement a furtive re-buttoning of her shirt. She couldn't yet  
  
believe it, it was him that stood before her, it really was Dawn that washed her  
  
face.  
  
"Um, I was going to fix them. I don't know how they got like that.". Dawn said  
  
worried about the state her sister was in, unresponsive, passive. So unlike  
  
Buffy, yet she was there behind her.  
  
"I do." Gently spoken, "clawed her way out of a coffin, that's how. In' that  
  
right?"  
  
"Yeah, that's what I had to do." Her first words, soft spoken; a symphony to his  
  
ears, and yet there was a depth of sadness there that cried out to be eased.  
  
"I've done it myself. Umm, we'll take care of you." He guided her to the  
  
lounge room, afraid to touch her in case she disappeared in a puff of smoke;  
  
still not believing that he wasn't dreaming. Turning to Dawn he said, "get some  
  
stuff, mercurochrome, bandages."  
  
"Ok."  
  
Spike walked beside Buffy into the lounge, hovering near, but not touching. She  
  
was here, alive, but how. He sat down on the coffee table and watched as the  
  
strangely silent Buffy sat opposite him.  
  
"How long was I gone?" She asked in a dull monotone.  
  
Taking her hands, his undead heart skipped a beat; she really was here. "147  
  
days yesterday, 148 today, 'cept today doesn't count." Unnoticed, the heat of  
  
her tiny hand began to infuse his. "How long was it for you? Where you were."  
  
His heart skipped again.  
  
"Longer." She said watching him, taking all of him in the her senses. A  
  
Vampire with a heart, no soul, but truly a strong heart. Heart enough to love  
  
her. Heart enough for the powers to grieve for him.  
  
"I got the stuff". Dawn said as she returned to the lounge room; the front door  
  
bursting open behind her.  
  
"Is she here??" Willow asked in a panic.  
  
"She's here." Tara reassured her, her eyes lighting on Buffy.  
  
"You're here." Willow said relieved to see Buffy again, 'It worked, it worked."  
  
She thought to herself.  
  
"We didn't know where you were." Xander still couldn't believe that Buffy would  
  
have run off and left them, but her she was.  
  
"You ran away." Anya, peeved because of all the running around when she could  
  
be at home with Xander.  
  
As more and more questions where fired at her Buffy shrank back into the couch;  
  
though she never let go of Spike's hands. Her warmth continued to flow to him,  
  
he became her anchor in the storm.  
  
"Buffy, are you ok? Willow asked, finally noticing her friend's withdrawal.  
  
"You knew she was back? How did you know?" Dawn asked staring at them over  
  
Buffy's head. Anger tinged her voice as she also noticed Buffy's withdrawal.  
  
"You're not a zombie are you?" Anya asked. She still hadn't mastered tact.  
  
"Anya!" Xander scolded.  
  
More questions, intrusive questions. Buffy almost cowered on the couch. Where  
  
had the peace gone? She tightened her grip on Spike; 'you must not let him go',  
  
unspoken words echoed in her mind.  
  
"Hey, Back Off." Dawn snarled.  
  
"You Did This!" Spike vamped in anger; chip or no chip some of those jugulars  
  
look mighty tasty just at the moment. Only Buffy's hand squeezing his stopped  
  
him from leaping at her friend. "What did you do?" He asked with quiet menace.  
  
"A spell ? ah, we did a spell ? we didn't think it worked, but ?" Willow said  
  
in characteristic waffle.  
  
"Is she going to be ok?" Dawn asked in concern.  
  
"I'm ok. I'm really fine." Buffy lied. "I remember, you brought me back."  
  
Another squeeze of Spike's hand, she silently asked him not to say anything. 'He  
  
knows I lie,' she thought to herself, 'he knows me too well.'  
  
Spike glanced at her, she wasn't fine. Surely her friends would see through the  
  
lie. But he held his peace for her. He just continued to listen to her heart,  
  
enjoy the heat of her hand in his.  
  
"What was it like?" Anya asked the question everyone wanted to ask.  
  
"I can't. I'm tired." Buffy said trying to put them off. "I, I need to rest I  
  
think."  
  
"But, Buffy," Willow started. She stopped suddenly when Spike swung to face  
  
her.  
  
"You," he growled, his heart skipping another beat. "Haven't you done enough  
  
tonight?"  
  
"Spike," Buffy said quietly. It was enough to bring his focus back to her, her  
  
hands; the blood on her hands. Her hands that he was going to take care of, but  
  
they'd been distracted. Her hands that she had to use to dig herself out of her  
  
own grave. Anger, hot anger began to boil through him at that, he drew heat  
  
from her hands and shot a look of pure murder at Willow.  
  
Tara, the most sensitive of them all, felt the heat. Fearing for Willow, even  
  
for Xander and Anya, she magiked them all up to the bedroom she shared with  
  
Willow. The use of such flagrant amounts of power draining her completely, she  
  
collapsed and gave her friends something else to worry about.  
  
Suddenly left in the lounge alone Spike, Dawn and Buffy revelled in the quiet.  
  
The only sound, and that only heard by Vampiric ears was three heart beats, all  
  
in unison. Spike, deprived of the target of his anger relaxed his visage back  
  
into that of his human form. "I'm sorry Buffy."  
  
"Don't be."  
  
"Not for that." He understood her, "for letting you die. I'm so sorry, so  
  
sorry." He lost it then, tears that he'd refused to shed falling like rain from  
  
his eyes. She was back, but she should never of had to leave. Dawn should  
  
never of had to go through the past months, and it was all his fault.  
  
"Spike," she leant forward to touch his brow. Her touch was white hot against  
  
his skin, "I'm home." She then looked to Dawn, "I'm sorry. I had to go away  
  
for a while, but I'm home now."  
  
Dawn stood still watching her sister and Spike. She had them both now, but for  
  
how long she wondered. 'I've lost Buffy once already,' she though to herself.  
  
'And Spike.' He was in danger from things she took for granted. 'I want my  
  
family,' she cried silently as she collapsed into the embrace of the sister and  
  
her Vampire.  
  
"We are home." Buffy said, she was home. Her strange home; a Slayer, A Vampire  
  
and a Key; three mystical beings linked together. She finally rejoiced, she had  
  
found her peace and she listened quietly as Spike continued to cry his pain out,  
  
as Dawn joined him. They held each other and sleep overtook them  
  
It was Willow who found them just after sunrise. Until then she, Tara, Xander  
  
and Anya had been trapped upstairs, a barrier preventing them from returning  
  
downstairs to the lounge once Tara had woken. They lay curled in each others  
  
arms, the sunlight streaming in through the window to touch golden brows.  
  
"Spike?" Willow called startling him from sleep.  
  
Unconsciously he Vamped, "what do you want, Wiccan?" He snarled, the lingering  
  
effects of last-nights anger still with him.  
  
"Uh, Spike? How! What! When?"  
  
"Make some bloody sense woman."  
  
"Sunlight," she squeaked pointing at the window.  
  
"Oh shit," Spike yelled, waking Buffy and Dawn as he tried to hurled himself  
  
from the couch, except that he was trapped in Buffy's embrace. His heart began  
  
to race in fear as he took in the light streaming across him.  
  
Buffy just smiled and cuddled back into the stunned Vampire, his warm skin a joy  
  
to her touch. Heaven at last, here on earth, never to leave. Peace forever.  
  
Love Jeanette 


End file.
